Unless you're a veteran, your sense of war, and perhaps your attitude toward it, are shaped by the images captured by those committed souls known as combat journalists.

Standing tall (in both ways) among that group was British-born Tim Hetherington, the subject of "Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington" (8 tonight, HBO), directed by his friend, author Sebastian Junger.

At 40, Hetherington was killed, along with N.C. raised photographer Chris Hondros, on April 20, 2011 by mortar fire in Libya, while covering that country's civil war.

The film is straight forward, using video and still images from Hetherington's powerful body of work to tell his story, along with interviews with his parents, his girlfriend and his colleagues, as well as Hetherington's voice. We learn the journey Hetherington took to become a combat journalist and his work philosophy. He wasn't really shooting war, but the emotions, the themes embedded in that hostile environment. It was always about the humanity.

The exploration of the fatal trip to Libya -- which includes video of the moments just before both Hondros and Hetherington were killed -- tells you much about how combat journalists work, the risks they knowingly take, the nature of war and the unrecoverable mistakes that can occur.

Hetherington's work is beautiful; it's always amazing to see how spirit can be captured in a single image, how a photographer can see the moments we can't, even if they are often right in front of us. Hetherington's work overseas reinforced our universal humanity.

In that sense, although "Which Way Is The Front Line From Here?" celebrates Hetherington, it also celebrates Hondros and other photographers who do this courageous, powerful work.

Tim Hetherington, the co-director and co-producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary 'Restrepo,' has been killed in Libya. 

Hetherington worked with Sebastian Junger on 'Restrepo,' which won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010 and aired on the National Geographic Channel.

Hetherington and Junger traveled to Afghanistan's Korengal Valley to spend a year with the Second Platoon, a besieged squadron that dubbed their stronghold Outpost Restrepo in honor of their fallen comrade, PFC Juan Restrepo.

According to reports, award-winning photojournalist Chris Hondros, right, was one of three photographers working alongside Hetherington and has been gravely wounded. A Washington Post reporter on the scene told his newspaper that a piece of shrapnel hit Hondros in the forehead and passed through the back of his head. Hondros was reportedly in a coma at a medical center located near the front lines.

Hondros is a graduate of N.C. State University who grew up in Fayetteville and worked at the Fayetteville Observer. He was in Misurata on assignment for the Getty Images News Services.

UPDATED (5:55 p.m.): A representative of Hondros' employer, Getty Images, called his family home in Fayetteville this afternoon and told his mother he had died of his wounds.

Since then, Getty has said they are unsure of whether Hondros has died or if he is still clinging to life in a Misurata hospital.

UPDATED (6:07 p.m.): The New York Times reports that Hondros spent several hours in a coma and then died after 10 p.m. Libya time. The Times sources Andre Liohn, a colleague who was at the triage center where Hondros was treated.

Paul Woolverton, a reporter for the Fayetteville Observer and friend, was at the house with Hondros' mother when the calls came. Hondros worked at his hometown paper after graduating from N.C. State, first as an intern and then as a staff photographer.

Woolverton recounted how his friend moved to New York to follow his dream of becoming a war corespondent. It was an ambition that would take him to some of the world's most troubled and dangerous destinations — Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq.

"When it came to photography, he gave it everything," Woolverton said a short time later. "You can tell with some people, who are really go-getters, that they are going to go far."

This photo gallery shows the images Hondros captured in Libya in the days -- and hours -- before he was injured.

You can also isten to an interview with Hondros on WUNC's The State of Things from 2009.

-Michael Biesecker contributed to this report.